Save Money on Your Scrapbooking - Go Recycled!

The human race will be the cancer of the planet. ~Julian Huxley, attributed

In our financial crisis, many of us are looking for ways to cut costs and curtail our spending. This is definitely a possibility in scrapbooking, if you think outside the box a bit. Let's talk about storage first. Here are some ideas for uses of household items to aid you in organizing your scrapbooking:



Jars - we all have empty jars of sauce, baby food, jelly, peanut butter, gravy -whatever you have eaten! Now, I know most of us wash them & throw them in the recycle bin, but what if you can use them for storage? See my post: http://scrapwithjan.blogspot.com/2008/12/scrapbookcraft-room-challenge-pt-ii.html
Wash them out with warm, soapy water and let them dry. Voila - pretty storage solution for flowers or ribbon!

Priority Mail Boxes: Instead of recycling them, they are very sturdy & make great paper holders! You can use them 'as is' or cut out a 'magazine-style' holder to see your paper. Use your scraps to make them pretty!

Nut & Bolt Organizer: Sometimes the man in your life may have something to repurpose. You know those cool metal or plastic boxes that have all the little drawers in them for different screws, nuts & bolts? Why not clean it out, maybe repaint it in a pretty color, and use it to organize your alphabet stickers or brads or buttons or other embellies? I'm on the lookout for a used one (hopefully for free) that I can use in my scraproom.

Silverware Tray: Do you have an extra one of these lurking in the attic? You can use it to organize your colored pencils and pens!

Cigar Boxes: How about these? Are they hanging around too? Use them to store scraps of paper or ribbons or other embellishments. You can also either decoupage them or paint them to match your room.

Yogurt containers: Eating yogurt is huge in my house. We each consume at least 1 a day. Of course, I wash them out & recycle them, but I had an abundance of glue sticks and didn't know what to do with them. So, I took a bunch of paper scraps, some modge podge & now I have a nifty holder for my glue sticks. I have also used another one for a set of alphabet stickers.

** I am on vacation & unable to download photos right now. Please stay tuned for pictures starting the week of Jan. 19th! Thanks for understanding! **

What ideas do you have? Share them with me! Together, all our small steps can make an impact on Mother Earth.